JEFFERSON — The Jefferson City Schools Board of Education has approved its fiscal year 2010 budget.

"This is the tightest we’ve seen things in recent years," said Ron Hopkins, school board chairman. "But based on the tax information that we’ve seen, we don’t anticipate having a millage rate increase."

The $18.2 million budget was approved unanimously.

During the school board’s meeting Thursday evening, the group also discussed other financial issues. One of the items that was discussed was the fact that the system will need to shop around for a short-term loan until additional tax revenue is received.

According to Kim Navas, system financial officer, the school system’s expenditures would exceed state funding by about $500,000 without the additional support of a small loan.

"I’m going to shop around to see what sort of temporary loan we can get to bridge the gap until we get the tax money in," said Navas.

"A lot of school systems have been doing this sort of thing for years, but we haven’t needed to do so until now."

The board will probably be presented with loan options at its next meeting in October, Navas said.

Also at the meeting, Superintendent John Jackson updated the board about H1N1 cases in the city schools.

Although there have been some students absent with flu-like symptoms, most students haven’t been affected by the virus, Jackson says.

"The state has requested notification if the overall rate of student absences reaches 10 percent," he told the board. "To this point, the highest percentage of student absences has been 3.5 percent."